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Hey all! I'm finally able to give back to the community that's given so much to me. I know this is "small", but I'm sure I'll be contributing more in the years to come whilst I run this campaign.
My group is very RP focused. Much of the plot has been changed because of the details the book leaves out that my group finds important or strange as the day's in Sandpoint go on. As such, I find myself writing up and filling in a lot of backstory for various NPCs and plot points.
One such NPC is Lucendi Quink, from Wayfinder #07. My PCs have latched onto Brodert Quink as a good friend and source of knowledge and advice. As such, when running this module (The Lure of Greed, from Wayfinder) I found that the lack of backstory for Lucendi was a major issue.
For player's, I encourage you stop reading here and recomend the module to your DM. It could essentially be run at any point in the campaign with some tweaks. This way, if your DM uses this, you won't be spoiled :)
Otherwise, please give me feedback on plot holes or things you think could be improved. I used information from the Anniversery book and Wayfinder 07 to write this. It's a bit rushed(I just finished it, and the session is in an hour), yes, but should work well enough.
Without further ado, Lucendi Quink's Backstory:
Lucendi grew up in Magnimar. Born to a common family, she would be the distinguished scholar she is today if it wasn’t for her uncle Brodert. Brodert was a cataloger at the Founder’s Archive in Magnimar for three decades, during which time Lucendi was growing up. Brodert was at odds with Lucendi’s family for quite some time, as he refused to help them with their financial struggles in one of the lower class district, Beacon’s Point.
Brodert was too focused on his job and studies of Thassilonian lore to care much about the family he left behind. Occasionally he would visit, and offer his young niece some gold for sweets and the like. Lucendi at first only spent time with the man at her parent’s behest(they hoped she would tell them something of Brodert that they could use to get money out of him), and for the sweets, but found herself growing appreciative of his ramblings as the years went on. In time, she looked forward to his visits in between hours spent working in her parents bakery. Brodert soon began to teach her to read, assigning her small books and assignments to work on.
When Lucendi was about the age of 16, Brodert began to change. He was growing increasingly upset that his learning and obvious intelligence wasn’t distinguishing him more amongst his peers at the Founder’s Archive. Up until Brodert told her of his plans, Lucendi noticed that he was becoming increasingly eccentric in his research and findings. He would spend most of their time together working on a thesis involving the Old Light and its supposed previous use as a war machine capable of spewing fire to a range of more than a mile, and would ramble on and on about evidence and support he seemed to pull from the smallest of links.
About a week after he finished the thesis (with Lucendi being the one to “peer review” the thesis), Brodert forlornly paid a visit to Lucendi once more. His peers had scoffed at Brodert, or so Lucendi was told the day he came to see her one last time before leaving. He told her what his peers had thought of his findings (or lackthereof), and his decision to move to Sandpoint so that he could study the Old Light more closely, and perhaps find evidence to support his claim and elevate his status as a true Thassilonian scholar.
Before Brodert left, however, he left Lucendi with a gift: a strongbox full of gold. He told her that the money was hers, and hers alone, to be spent on a proper education so that she could contribute the bright mind he knew she had to the scholarly world. She promised that she would do whatever it took to follow in his footsteps, and to become a proper Scholar.
Although Lucendi’s parents could have used the money to invest in the bakery, they were well enough off at this point to allow their daughter to reach out and try to find her own place in the world, an opportunity that they had missed in the past. About the age of 19, when the bakery was stable enough to do without their daughter’s help, they blessed her pursuit of knowledge, and of she went to find her place amongst Acadamia.
What Lucendi did not realize, however, was how boring becoming a learned citizen could be. While she did enjoy reading occasionally, and definitely enjoyed the stories and theories of ancient Thassilon and other interesting entities of old, she did not realize how droll open study could be. Most scholar’s above her insisted that she focus on learning more about the real world and the state of politics before focusing on the past. She found this boring and uninteresting, but trudged through countless treatsies and histories on Avistan and Garund. For a year she studied these boring topics, gradually losing focus on her goals, until one day she met an individual who completely changed her life’s direction.
Charming, knowledgeable, and full of interesting idea’s and theories, Lucendi met Mersoolian Threce by chance in the Archives. She had once more found her way to the Thassilon section of the libraries, and was pouting at the thought of having to read yet another report on the current state of the River Kingdoms when the man approached her. The two hit it off immediately, with Mersoolian utilizing the setting as a way to broach topics he knew Lucendi would be interested in.
A cleric of Nethys, Mersoolian was just the kind of man that could spark Lucendi’s internal thirst for knowledge. Mersoolian began courting her within the month, and by the end of the year the two were toying with the idea of marriage. In between Mersoolian’s work of upkeeping a small shrine to Nethys and sales of scrolls and maps and Lucendi’s studies, the two planned the details of their marriage.
With the left over money from Brodert, and the money Mersoolian had been saving for years, the two planned a joint expedition into Sandpoint’s hinterlands to attempt to locate an Thassilonian structure that Lucendi managed to come up with a vague location for. Upon returning with new Thassilonian artifacts and knowledge, the two would marry in the Archives.
To Lucendi and Mersoolian, this was the most romantic way they could go about officializing their union.
At this point, pick up from the module where things are left off. Mersoolian most likely dies by the PC's hands(As he ended up turning evil), and now Lucendi is left with nothing but injuries, regret, and a dead husband. I'm planning on having her stay with Brodert for a while, and maybe returning to Magnimar if the PCs don't really care for her after.
Thanks for reading!